Nov

7

When school nurse Timika Hopkins had a child come home with head lice, she was in for a shock. “Even though I had worked through numerous lice outbreaks in the school setting, nothing could prepare me for the day my own family got lice,” she said. “My background as a school nurse taught me how to screen for it, and how to gently inform parents of it, but never did it teach me how absolutely impossible it could be to get rid of it!”

Timika spent nearly $200 and some thirty hours of combing and nitpicking to no avail. She used over-the-counter lice treatment products, which gave her child a case of hives.

Believing that there must be a better way to treat head lice, Timika started doing some research and discovered the AirAllé medical device offered by Lice Clinics of America. “I was thrilled to find a solution for head lice that is science-based and medically proven,” she said. “It is pesticide free and it is fast. I want my experience to be a lesson for others!”

The AirAllé device is an FDA-cleared medical device that kills live lice and nits (eggs) using carefully controlled warm air to dehydrate the lice and nits, and it has been proven in clinical trials to kill live lice and 99.2 percent of eggs. Most treatments take about 90 minutes and are guaranteed to be effective.

Timika was so impressed by the experience that she opened her own Lice Clinics of America center in her hometown of Medford, Mass. The clinic opened toward the end of 2016, and the phone started ringing right away.

“Some of my first clients were a family with two young sons,” she said. “While mom and dad were sure that the sons and the mom had lice, we were all surprised when we screened dad and found that he had lice, too! The treatment was so fast, and they were such good sports about the whole process. It felt wonderful to help them.”

Timika wants people to know that a case of head lice isn’t anything to be embarrassed about socially, and that there are no ill health effects. It’s mostly a nuisance. “Head lice have been referenced throughout history. They are even referenced in the Bible,” she said. “It is not an indication of being unclean. If anything, a case of head lice is an indication of being sociable, friendly, and loved, because they only spread through close human contact.”

Unfortunately, the social stigma that links head lice to poor hygiene persists, leading many families to hide the condition and suffer in isolation. “The stigma that head lice mean you are unclean needs to end,” Timika said. “It is just untrue.”

Treatment by the AirAllé medical device is available exclusively at Lice Clinics of America treatment centers. Lice Clinics of America is the world’s largest network of professional lice clinics with more than 230 clinics in 20 countries.